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Researchers at James Cook University have developed a virus ‘silencing’ technique that could save the Australian prawn industry from millions of dollars in losses. PhD student Kathy La Fauce has spent three years investigating how to reduce the spread of a virus which is robbing Australian aquaculture farms of their prawns. Penaeus merguiensis densovirus (PmergDNV) is the Australian strain of hepatopancreatic parvovirus, which stunts the growth of prawns, leaving them vulnerable...
Studies carried out by the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) show that the active component in one of the most common anti-salmon louse drugs causes temporary moderate stress in the treated salmon. One of the most common ways of treating farmed salmon against salmon louse (a crustacean) is to give the fish medicated feed containing active components. Emamectin benzoate is the most used active component in medicated feed of this kind, being commonly used in...
There seems to be no end to the controversy around sea lice and fish farms in B.C. The province released its 2007 Fish Health Report last week, and it concluded that sea lice counts at the province's approximately 130 salmon fish farms are at their lowest level since the inception of the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture's monitoring program which began in 2003. However, while marine biologist Alexandra Morton acknowledged sea lice populations around the fish farms are...
The common carp is the third most important farmed fish species in the world. However, serious diseases such as Koi herpes virus (KHV) threaten farming in many countries. Nofima and their partners in the EU project EUROCARP have found that this disease is highly heritable and can be effectively fought by selective breeding. This was found when the researchers crossed individuals of four common carp strains of wild and cultured origin, and tested their survival after KHV infection. For...
Spring viremia of carp (SVC) is a viral disease that can cause significant mortality of common carp ( Cyprinus carpio ). This species is raised as a food fish in many countries and has also been selectively bred for the ornamental fish industry, where it is known as koi. Historically, the disease has been a problem in Europe, the Middle East, and Russia. Recently, SVC has been reported in koi in the United States for the first time. This information sheet is intended to inform...
Swordtails can inherit melanoma that drives sexual selection. Though skin cancer is deadly to male fish, it also has one perk: The black melanoma splotches arise from attractive natural markings that lure female mates. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week shows that the melanoma gene can be conserved in swordtail fish because of its beneficial role in sexual selection. Ohio University scientists André...
Heterosporis is a tiny parasite that forms cysts in the muscles of fish. In severe infections, the parasite and its spores may replace most of the muscle tissue. It is often noticed when fishermen dress fish and find that the fillets have opaque white patches and are soft and unpalatable. There is no evidence that the parasite kills fish directly, but the destruction of muscle would be expected to make fish more vulnerable to predators. Several species of Heterosporis ...
International Research Team Hopes to Test New Vaccine for Salmon Virus. Researchers may have a new weapon against infectious salmon anemia (ISA), the scourge of Chile’s salmon industry. Chilean pharmaceutical company Corporación Farmacéutica Recalcine applied Wednesday for approval to conduct field tests for a new vaccine against the disease. If successful, the vaccine has the potential to staunch a plague that has wiped out 16 salmon-farming...
Recent research by Drs. Marina Collins and David Lindsay has expanded the understanding of the interaction between Toxoplasma gondii and oysters in the marine environment. T. gondii is prevalent in the marine environment, and it has previously been determined that Eastern oysters ( Crassostrea virginica ) can remove sporulated T. gondii oocysts from seawater and that the oocysts retain their infectivity for some time. This study examined the...
University of Guelph scientists helped determine that a strain of herpes was killing off carp in central Ontario lakes. But it remains unknown whether the Koi herpes virus (KHV), which caused a die-off of fish numbering in the tens of thousands, will spread. Guelph Lake has a large population of carp. Grand River Conservation Authority is on the alert, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources said there is no threat to human health from the virus. "As to whether the carp...
Stirling Products Ltd says it has developed an inhibitor for Loma Gill Disease, a parasite that plagues farmed salmon and trout. Stirling's beta glucan product, ProVale, inhibits the impact of Loma Microsporidial Gill Disease - or Loma salmonae - a costly and untreatable disease in farmed fish. Dr Nicole Guselle presented results of the study into the disease at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society (FHS-AFS). "At this time there are no therapeutic...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Terramycin® 200 for Fish (oxytetracycline dihydrate) Type A medicated article for the control of mortality in freshwater-reared salmonids due to coldwater disease caused by Flavobacterium psychrophilum and for the control of mortality in freshwater-reared Oncorhynchus mykiss due to columnaris disease associated with Flavobacterium columnare (New Animal Drug Application 038-439). In addition to these two new indications, the approval...
Henderson Morley, the biotechnology company, announces that the Company is in discussions with a number of animal health companies regarding the further development of a fish vaccine adjuvant. The Company has started trials which are examining the role of a proprietary vaccine adjuvant, designed for use in the KHV vaccine program, but also with potential utility in other commercially important fish vaccines. The cost of this programme is funded within the current cash burn....
For the past three years, Byram Hills High School student Kristy Gardner of Bedford, N.Y. has been focused on a tiny organism that causes a type of harmful algal bloom, commonly called red tide, that affects shellfish in Gulf of Maine and New England waters. The blooms can have devastating human health and economic impacts, but much remains unknown about how the organism reproduces and survives the winter. Gardner was curious, and at the end of her sophomore year decided to team up with...
Farmed Atlantic salmon in the fresh water stage are supplied with extra oxygen to maintain well-being and growth. Recent trials carried out by NIFES have shown that oxygenated water in this life stage can lead to cataract development in the sea water stage. Farmed Atlantic salmon can develop cataracts, which are malconditions in the eye. In severe cases it leads to blindness, reduced feed intake and other malconditions. Research has shown that both composition of the feed and production...
Further research into the heritability of resistance to sea lice infestations is being planned following promising laboratory-based results from a pilot trial involving the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Glasgow University, the Institute of Aquaculture, Stirling, and Landcatch Natural Selection (LNS), Alloa. The pilot trial has shown moderate to high heritability of familial resistance to sea lice infestations in LNS stock. As a result, further work is to be undertaken in which...
Talk about a death-defying escape. Sea lice, parasitic crustaceans that torment salmon, jump ship when their host gets nabbed by a bigger fish--and they then latch onto the predator. This previously unknown escape tactic, described in a study published online this week in Biology Letters, may mean bad news for an entire food web. Due to large-scale fish farming, sea lice have spun out of control in the waters of British Columbia. The closely crowded fish cages are hotbeds for the...
Shrimp output this year will fall as a result of a reduction in breeding farms and outbreaks of serious diseases, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. An estimated 420,000 ha in the southern provinces of Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang are being used to raise shrimp, 80,000 ha fewer than last year. According to Tra Vinh’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department, 13,600 ha of shrimp farms have been infected with disease. The situation...
The Department of Fisheries will begin survey work next week to confirm the presence and check the extent of a marine pest, which has not previously been found in WA. This green seaweed, formally known as Codium fragile ssp. tomentosoides, has recently been identified in a sample of macroalga taken at Albany’s Town Jetty. Experts agree this particular seaweed is difficult to tell apart from some other species of Codium, which are not defined as marine pests. It has previously...
AN international fish health conference has offered a global view of the current situation of Chile’s salmon industry now under attack by a violent outbreak of ISA virus. The outbreak has already caused over two million salmon to be destroyed. The event which took place in Puerto Montt last Friday was entitled “Current situation of the ISA Virus outbreak in Chile: pandemic and pathologic aspects and diagnosis.” The opening lecture was delivered by veterinary...